Steve McQueen in The Great Escape

Eddie Izzard on The Great Escape: On the day of the escape, Steve McQueen has joined up. The British have trilby hats, overcoats, canoe, bit of a rabbit. And, er… Steve’s just there in jeans and a T-shirt. Disguised as an American man.

He romps out, jumps on a motorbike, knocks a guy off. Within minutes he reaches Switzerland. This is from Poland. And if you don’t know the geography, it goes Poland, Czechoslovakia, Holland, Venezuela, Africa, Beirut, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and then Switzerland, where the Nazi gold comes from. So, yes.

John Michael Thornton dreamed of being a bomb-throwing leftist, until he blew out his arm and required season-ending Tommy John surgery. He is now a writer living in the Bay Area, and can be reached at john.michael.thornton@aya.yale.edu.
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